EAC files to AVR

[Sr SQ]

Hi guys I'm kinda out of my league here and need some help.
I have been slowly ripping all my CDs with EAC and want to be able to use my computer to set up play lists for my receiver. I haven't yet got to the point of transferring the music over to Itunes so I can load it onto my Ipod but want to keep the music as lossless as possible so..... do I need to convert it to MP3 or can I keep it as a flac or wav file and still somehow play it over my AVR? I don't yet have a sound card in my computer yet and need to send the signal 50' to the AVR.
I'm looking for suggestions on what....
~sound card
~Type of cable for the signal transfer
~and anything else I need to know (I know there probably isnt that much time in a day)
TIA Sr

 

[gus6464]

Hi guys I'm kinda out of my league here and need some help.
I have been slowly ripping all my CDs with EAC and want to be able to use my computer to set up play lists for my receiver. I haven't yet got to the point of transferring the music over to Itunes so I can load it onto my Ipod but want to keep the music as lossless as possible so..... do I need to convert it to MP3 or can I keep it as a flac or wav file and still somehow play it over my AVR? I don't yet have a sound card in my computer yet and need to send the signal 50' to the AVR.
I'm looking for suggestions on what....
~sound card
~Type of cable for the signal transfer
~and anything else I need to know (I know there probably isnt that much time in a day)
TIA Sr

A very good solution since you are using itunes is to buy an airport express. I use one and it works great. Only thing is that I don't think itunes can do flac so you have to do either apple lossless of go with AIFF(fully uncompressed). I myself use AIFF since I like EAC better than the itunes ripper and even though the files are a bit bigger who cares with the prices of hard drives nowadays. Also I recommend you use a mini toslink -> toslink cable from the airport express to the receiver so that you can bypass the airport DAC and just use the receivers. Also with the airport express via itunes you can control what to play on your receiver through any laptop/computer/iphone/ipod touch in the house without you being tied to the music server. If you need any more info on how to get this all hooked up just PM me and I can give you detailed instructions.

 

[MDS]

EAC is just a program that does digital audio extraction (aka 'ripping'). The files it produces will be WAV files (which are PCM and hence lossless) unless you have it transcode to MP3 or another lossy format on the fly.

A reciever can play any PCM file directly if the computer is connected to the receiver via a digital connection. If the sound card is connected to the receiver via analog connections, then the sound card will do the conversion from digital to analog and the receiver will still play it directly.

MP3 and other lossy compression codecs are great for saving space on the hard drive and reducing the amount of data that has to be sent from the computer to the receiver but ultimately you should save the uncompressed WAV files that were ripped directly from the CD and then convert them to MP3 or any other format if you like.

I rip all of my music to an external hard drive and store it in WAV format. I then transcode the WAV to MP3 and store the MP3 on a different drive. That way I always have the original uncompressed version from the CD and never have to rip the CD again. I tend to play the MP3 version due to convenience but the WAV files can be played directly too - either on the computer or by sending it to a receiver.

 

[808htfan]

Hi guys I'm kinda out of my league here and need some help.
I have been slowly ripping all my CDs with EAC and want to be able to use my computer to set up play lists for my receiver. I haven't yet got to the point of transferring the music over to Itunes so I can load it onto my Ipod but want to keep the music as lossless as possible so..... do I need to convert it to MP3 or can I keep it as a flac or wav file and still somehow play it over my AVR? I don't yet have a sound card in my computer yet and need to send the signal 50' to the AVR.
I'm looking for suggestions on what....
~sound card
~Type of cable for the signal transfer
~and anything else I need to know (I know there probably isnt that much time in a day)
TIA Sr

A Squeezebox, http://www.slimdevices.com/pi_squeezebox.html works wonders. Plays flac and all, no prob. A router and wireless network makes for the easiest set up, I think. Also works wired and even w/ a direct connection to the computer, though 50' of network cable running thru your place might be messy...

 

[gus6464]

EAC is just a program that does digital audio extraction (aka 'ripping'). The files it produces will be WAV files (which are PCM and hence lossless) unless you have it transcode to MP3 or another lossy format on the fly.

A reciever can play any PCM file directly if the computer is connected to the receiver via a digital connection. If the sound card is connected to the receiver via analog connections, then the sound card will do the conversion from digital to analog and the receiver will still play it directly.

MP3 and other lossy compression codecs are great for saving space on the hard drive and reducing the amount of data that has to be sent from the computer to the receiver but ultimately you should save the uncompressed WAV files that were ripped directly from the CD and then convert them to MP3 or any other format if you like.

I rip all of my music to an external hard drive and store it in WAV format. I then transcode the WAV to MP3 and store the MP3 on a different drive. That way I always have the original uncompressed version from the CD and never have to rip the CD again. I tend to play the MP3 version due to convenience but the WAV files can be played directly too - either on the computer or by sending it to a receiver.

50' is a long way to go though and personally kind of a hassle when you can get a good wireless adapter like a squeezebox or airport express.

 

[MDS]

50' is a long way to go though and personally kind of a hassle when you can get a good wireless adapter like a squeezebox or airport express.

True but I didn't comment on that aspect.

 

[Sr SQ]

Ok so let me get this right, I can send the signal to the airport or squeezebox from my wireless router? I have not heard or seen of these, I have so much to learn Wiring wouldn't be to bad of a option for me as my basement is unfinished at this point but....
MDS
I plan on doing as you said backing up all this work on a external HD, good point.

 

[OttoMatic]

EAC is just a program that does digital audio extraction (aka 'ripping'). The files it produces will be WAV files (which are PCM and hence lossless) unless you have it transcode to MP3 or another lossy format on the fly.

Well, EAC can transcode to FLAC on the fly as well. FLAC is completely lossless. Yeah, disk space isn't terribly expensive, but I do get some savings by using FLAC (save about 30%). Finally, for me, the most important thing about FLAC is that it allows you to utelize the mp3-style tags for artist, album, track, etc. I don't think that .wav will allow this at all (I tried, but there may be some type of add-on at this point). In my opinion, you simply have to have the tags.

I have all my music ripped to FLAC, and it streams to my preamp via a Dell PC that is directly connected to that preamp. If you are making an HTPC that will connect to the PC directly, then you would most likely connect the digital out of your soundcard directly to the preamp/receiver. If your PC is far away from your preamp/receiver, then the Airport Express is an idea. Same with the Squeezebox. If you're budget-conscious, I've seen the Sonos work very nicely -- it's much, much cooler than the other two.

Good luck either way.

 

[Sr SQ]

Well, EAC can transcode to FLAC on the fly as well. FLAC is completely lossless. Yeah, disk space isn't terribly expensive, but I do get some savings by using FLAC (save about 30%). Finally, for me, the most important thing about FLAC is that it allows you to utelize the mp3-style tags for artist, album, track, etc. I don't think that .wav will allow this at all (I tried, but there may be some type of add-on at this point). In my opinion, you simply have to have the tags.

I have all my music ripped to FLAC, and it streams to my preamp via a Dell PC that is directly connected to that preamp. If you are making an HTPC that will connect to the PC directly, then you would most likely connect the digital out of your soundcard directly to the preamp/receiver. If your PC is far away from your preamp/receiver, then the Airport Express is an idea. Same with the Squeezebox. If you're budget-conscious, I've seen the Sonos work very nicely -- it's much, much cooler than the other two.

Good luck either way.

I used EAC to rip the cds and thought they were being stored as FLAC files as they all have the tags you speak of, but I don't know how to tell

 

[OttoMatic]

I used EAC to rip the cds and thought they were being stored as FLAC files as they all have the tags you speak of, but I don't know how to tell

You can look at the extension of the files your ripped. Are they .flac or .wav?

Did you intentionally download FLAC and set up EAC to interface with it? (You'd know if you did). If not, you probably didn't rip to FLAC unless something's changed since I did it.

 

[MDS]

Finally, for me, the most important thing about FLAC is that it allows you to utelize the mp3-style tags for artist, album, track, etc. I don't think that .wav will allow this at all (I tried, but there may be some type of add-on at this point). In my opinion, you simply have to have the tags.

WAV files can have embedded ISRC tags but they aren't terribly useful as I've never found any application other than Sound Forge that will read or write them.

 

[Sr SQ]

You can look at the extension of the files your ripped. Are they .flac or .wav?

Did you intentionally download FLAC and set up EAC to interface with it? (You'd know if you did). If not, you probably didn't rip to FLAC unless something's changed since I did it.

Yes I did, or thought I did?
I have only done 6-7 cds so far and when I open up the eac program I can see the albums in the database but I havent figured out how to deal with them yet Still clicking away LOL

 

[808htfan]

Ok so let me get this right, I can send the signal to the airport or squeezebox from my wireless router?

Yep.

You can try out the server software here, http://www.slimdevices.com/su_downloads.html. That has to be running on the computer you connect the Squeezebox to (unless you use an alternative like iTunes, I think), you point it to your 'music' folder (create shortcuts in that 'music' folder pointing to other folders/drives holding music if they're not in its sub folders), the rest is pretty much adding the Squeezebox to your network if I remember correctly.

They also have a pretty helpful forum here, http://forums.slimdevices.com/




Edit: Just noticed that Slimdevices intro'd a new product, http://www.slimdevices.com/pi_duet.html. Pretty cool.